Mexico Canyon
Cañón La Huasteca
1,150 m of rock, cut by the Río Santa Catarina.
Aldo Dávalos · CC BY-SA 4.0
The cut
1,150 metres, to scale.
A slice through Cañón La Huasteca where it is deepest and narrowest, measured on the Copernicus relief model every 30 m. Same scale as the landmark standing on the floor.
Standing on the floor, to scale: Eiffel Tower · 330 m · Burj Khalifa · 828 m
Depth is measured to the lower rim; the width is from rim to rim. A 30 m relief model smooths the narrowest walls, so a slot canyon reads shallower than it is.
1,150m
Depth
measured on the 30 m relief model
14.5km
Rim to rim
measured on the 30 m relief model
51°
Steepest wall
average over 300 m, from the relief
676m
Floor altitude
Rim to floor
9 °C warmer at the bottom.
In June the afternoon reaches 36 °C on the floor, against 27 °C on the rim. The best months to hike are from December to January. The floor passes 35 °C from May to June: walk at dawn and carry water. The wettest months are from July to September.
- 24°15°Jan
- 27°18°Feb
- 30°21°Mar
- 34°25°Apr
- 36°27°May
- 36°27°Jun
- 35°26°Jul
- 35°26°Aug
- 31°22°Sep
- 30°21°Oct
- 27°18°Nov
- 25°16°Dec
Afternoon highs, 1991–2020 averages (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the rim and of the floor with the standard lapse rate (6.5 °C per 1 000 m). Shade, wind and rock change this on the day. Not a forecast.
Gorge in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Cañón La Huasteca is a canyon in Mexico, cut by the Río Santa Catarina. The relief model measures 1,150 m from the floor to the lower rim, and 1,382 m to the higher one. Rim to rim it is 14 km wide where the cut was taken.
Getting there.
- Santa Catarinanearest town · 5.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 80 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.1 km from the floor
- Monterrey International Airport (MTY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 39 km in a straight lineCar hire at MTY airport (Monterrey)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
- From December to Januarybest months to hike (estimate)
Plan the visit
Guided hikes, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The river
The Río Santa Catarina runs highest in September.
The Río Santa Catarina carries about 1.1 m³/s on average here. It runs highest in September. It is lowest from December to June.
- 0.2 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.2 m³/sMar
- 0.2 m³/sApr
- 0.6 m³/sMay
- 1.0 m³/sJun
- 2.2 m³/sJul
- 1.8 m³/sAug
- 4.7 m³/sSep
- 2.8 m³/sOct
- 1.1 m³/sNov
- 0.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.15 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.7 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 1,040 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From the sky.
The canyon from above, with the relief shaded, the line of the cut, the river and what people have mapped around it.
N
6 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 24 × 24 km, north up. The line is the cut above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the canyon.
- 2viewpoints within 5 km
- 1caves within 3 km
- 3car parks within 3 km
- 13hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmCity Express Monterrey Santa Catarina, Inicia vereda a La Cueva de la Bestia, Casa Monarca Ayuda al migrante and 10 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 4 km
- marked hiking routes within 4 km
- via ferrata routes within 4 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- footbridges and suspension bridges within 3 km
- rafting, canoe, kayak or canyoning spots within 4 km
- swimming spots within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the floor of the canyon. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Santa Catarina5.5 km in a straight line
- San Pedro Garza García7.0 km in a straight line
- Monterrey16 km in a straight line
- Mitras Poniente17 km in a straight line
- Parque Industrial Ciudad Mitras18 km in a straight line
- Los Parques19 km in a straight line
- Valle de Lincoln19 km in a straight line
- San Nicolás de los Garza20 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cañón La Huasteca.
The river that carved it, the waterfalls inside it, the mountains on the rim, the lakes, beaches and island nearby — from our six sister atlases, each with its own figures.
Peakyas12 mountains within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather, at the floor and at the rim.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon · floor | 24 | 27 | 30 | 34 | 36 | 36 | 35 | 35 | 31 | 30 | 27 | 25 |
| Afternoon · rim | 15 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 21 | 18 | 16 |
| Night · rim | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 17 | 15 | 23 | 23 | 44 | 55 | 86 | 58 | 132 | 43 | 20 | 15 |
| Rainy days | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| Sun hours/day | 7.3 | 8.2 | 8.7 | 9.2 | 9.0 | 9.6 | 8.9 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 8.1 | 7.7 | 7.4 |
| Afternoon · floor | Afternoon · rim | Night · rim | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24 | 15 | 0 | 17 | 7.3 |
| Feb | 27 | 18 | 2 | 15 | 8.2 |
| Mar | 30 | 21 | 5 | 23 | 8.7 |
| Apr | 34 | 25 | 9 | 23 | 9.2 |
| May | 36 | 27 | 11 | 44 | 9.0 |
| Jun | 36 | 27 | 13 | 55 | 9.6 |
| Jul | 35 | 26 | 12 | 86 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 35 | 26 | 12 | 58 | 9.2 |
| Sep | 31 | 22 | 11 | 132 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 30 | 21 | 8 | 43 | 8.1 |
| Nov | 27 | 18 | 4 | 20 | 7.7 |
| Dec | 25 | 16 | 1 | 15 | 7.4 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the floor (676 m) and the rim (2,057 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Seen from the trail.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 327% | 20% | 81% | 92% | 90% | 154% | 180% | 34% | 58% | 1% | 3% | 36% |
| 2021 | 32% | 17% | 9% | 67% | 97% | 180% | 93% | 124% | 27% | 109% | 115% | 87% |
| 2022 | 74% | 40% | 0% | 79% | 43% | 56% | 18% | 128% | 103% | 84% | 77% | 13% |
| 2023 | 5% | 4% | 71% | 295% | 249% | 29% | 34% | 51% | 25% | 242% | 597% | 49% |
| 2024 | 93% | 302% | 67% | 94% | 45% | 379% | 117% | 48% | 114% | 64% | 14% | 98% |
| 2025 | 43% | 15% | 34% | 12% | 158% | 92% | 131% | 97% | 64% | 80% | 59% | 51% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length | Wikidata (Q27823124) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The cut: depth, width, wall and 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Viewpoints, trails, bridges and the river line | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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